Rush
by mmauney12
Summary: Josie was a pretty average girl that got an extraordinary opportunity through her friends at TAPS to investigate with GHI. Pairing has been decided! Barry/OC  3  And is set in 2009
1. Meeting the crew

I was sitting in my living room flipping through my TV guide, mainly focusing on the Syfy channel, when I saw something that got me really excited. This was on a Saturday , so really I didn't have anything I absolutely had to do, and I was already up to Tuesday on my DirecTV guide and there was going to be a marathon of Ghost Hunters International from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m. so I immediately perked up.

Well, you're probably wondering who I am. My name is Joséphine Hanna Abendroth, but I go by Josie. I'm 25 years old and I have long, brown hair and green eyes, but unfortunately I'm only about 5' 4" and I have a fairly long torso, which means I have fairly short legs. My mother, Christine, is French, which is where my first name came from, and my father is German, which is where my middle name came from. I loved my maternal grandparents to death and was always glad when they visited, but I'd never met my paternal grandparents because they had died during the Holocaust in a concentration camp. But anyway, I'm an only child, but by no means am I spoiled. All my life I've had to work for the things I wanted. One plus, though, is that my mom is one of my best friends.

Well, now you're probably thinking why am I excited about a marathon of GHI on a Tuesday. I do have a job, but said job is at a high school. I am the band and orchestra director at the biggest high school in all of Rhode Island. There are probably over 100 kids in the band and orchestra separately, but I think that's probably better than a small number of kids in each all because of how many different personalities there are. Other than my teaching job, I do local paranormal investigations with a small group of people or sometimes even with some of my students, which is always fun to do. There is one very fortunate thing about my paranormal investigating, I ended up being pretty good friends with Jason and Grant from TAPS, mostly because my parents we close to Grant's parents, and I'd even taken evidence to them to check out for me. But back to my Tuesday reasoning. School had ended a couple of weeks ago, so I had nothing better to do. As I continued to flip through the TV guide, my cell phone started ringing (my ringtone is the song Rush by Sam Hazo. What can I say, I'm a band geek). When I looked at my caller ID, I smiled and answered it. "Hey Grant, what's up?" I said.

"Hey Josie, nothing really. The crew from Ghost Hunters International is coming later today and Jason and I thought that you should meet them. And a plus to that is that they just lost a team member because she's getting married and their search for someone to replace her isn't going so well." Grant said.

"Oh cool! I'd like to meet them. Can I come up to the office now?" I said, excited to be able to meet the GHI team.

"Yeah, there's no problem with that, It's just me, Jason, Kris, Steve, and Tango here." Grant said, sensing my excitement.

"Awesome! I'll see you in a few." I said, already heading out to my car.

"Okay, bye." Grant said and we hung up.

The whole way to the TAPS office I was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. When I walked into the office, Kris Williams was sitting at the front desk like always.

"Hey Kris." I said when I saw her.

"Hey Josie. I guess you're here to meet the GHI team, huh?" Kris said, smiling.

"Yeah. Grant called and asked me to." I said. Me and Kris were pretty good friends, I wasn't as close to her as I was to Grant or Jason, but it was nice to have a girl to talk to on TAPS.

"All right. They're already here so you can probably just go straight back. They're talking with Jay and Grant in the conference room." Kris said.

"Okay, thanks." I said, smiling, and headed towards the conference room. When I got to the conference room, the door was cracked slightly and I could hear the guys talking quietly. I tapped lightly on the door and Grant opened it. "Josie! It's great to see you again!" Grant said, hugging me.

"It's great to see you again too, Grant!" I said, returning the hug. "Hey Jason, good seeing you again too." I said upon seeing him and punched his arm lightly,

"What, he gets a hug and I don't?" Jason said, playfully looking disappointed.

"Maybe." I answered back playfully.

"Oh just come here." He said and gave me a bear hug. I grinned broadly and tried to hug him tighter than he was hugging me, but to no avail. There had always seemed to be something between me and Jason, we just weren't sure what, so we left if at something like twins, just a little more than that.

After the gigantic hug, Grant said, "Well, Josie, this is the GHI team. Robb Demarest, Dustin Pari, but you already know him from his time with TAPS, Brandy Green, Barry Fitzgerald, who you've met before as well, and Joe Chin. Guys, this is, well, I'll let her say her name. It sounds better when she says it than when someone else does."

"Okay then. Well, uh, hi. I guess he means for me to say my full name. It's Joséphine Hanna Abendroth, but everyone calls me Josie." I said, smiling at everyone, particularly Dustin and Barry because I sort of had a little thing for them, though I found Robb kind of cute too.

"That's an interesting name. What nationalities are your parents?" Joe asked.

"My mother's French and my father's German. How did you know they're not of the same nationality?" I said, cocking my head to the side.

One of the other guys answered instead, "The way you said your first and middle name. You said them in two completely different accents." Dustin said.

"Hm. I've never noticed that. I guess they have to be said in two different accents." I said, laughing a little.

"Okay, well you guys can get a little better acquainted later if you'd like because I did ask Josie to come here for a reason." Grant said, looking rather pleased with himself. "Jason and I know that you have been looking for a new team member since Angela left and when you called and said you were coming back to the States to try to find someone, we knew you had to meet Josie and we both hope you might consider her in your search. She is a good investigator and has even brought us some really good evidence from a couple of her cases." Grant said, but then the door of the conference room opened. "Josie!" I heard someone exclaim from behind me and almost immediately someone lifted me off the ground in a backwards hug. I restrained from squealing too badly and said, laughing, "It's good to see you again too, Steve." When Steve put me down, I turned around and saw that Tango was with him and greeted him with a hug as well.

Once everyone was done having a laugh at the way Steve greeted me, Robb was thanking Grant about finding someone for him right off the bat like that and we set up a time that I could have an interview with the team. I was very excited about this and thanked Grant as well for the amazing opportunity.

While I was getting to know the GHI team a little better, I would occasionally glance at Dustin or Barry and as I was leaving, Steve took the time to say to me, "_Je pense tu aime ils_." So at that point I really hated that he knew French, but I promptly replied with, "_Fermez la bouche_."

When I left, Jason insisted that I allow him to walk out with me and I knew he was going to tell me to be careful. When we were outside, I leaned against my open car door as Jason talked to me.

"Now I want you to promise me that if you get a position with GHI that you'll be careful and for the first month or two that you'll call Grant or myself regularly, okay?" Jason said with concern.

"Okay, I promise. And you know that careful is my middle name." I said, smiling cheesily.

"Yes, but unfortunately I also know that your last name is reckless so just be careful. We'll see you later." he said and playfully flicked my nose, which I pretended hurt really bad, making him laugh. I playfully sighed and rolled my eyes, choosing not to answer that comment and just hugged him and he hugged me in return.

Now, you're probably wondering about this whole little thing with me and Jason. I do know he has a wife and kids, so don't think he's doing anything to harm them, because he's not. I met his wife not too long after they got married and we because good friends pretty quick. We always talked to each other about our problems and I was the second person to know each time she was pregnant with each of their children (she always let Jason know first of course) and I've known their children literally since they were born. Their kids absolutely love me and have even adopted calling me 'Aunt Josie', well, whenever they get to see me.

When I got home, I did a little excited dance (25 year olds can do that too, haha) and decided to get ready for my interview, which was that night and would consist of a series of questions and even a mini investigation of a local bar. I opted to take another shower since I had time and when I was done I put on a nice pair of skinny jeans and a black, low-cut top that was tight around the top of my jeans and loose everywhere else and I opted to wear a pair of black flats that are literally the next best thing to not wearing shoes at all, which I really liked a lot. I decided to put on a little bit of eye liner and mascara, but only on the top and that was all the make up I wanted to put on. When I went back into my living room, I decided to eat a little bit of something then go on back to TAPS office because it was getting close to 5:30 and I had to be there at 6 for the interview.


	2. The Whalen Cafe

**Author's Note:** Here's part two! I should probably put a disclaimer: I only own Josie and her parents right now, might add other characters later, but for now that's it. I was having some trouble choosing who to do the pairing with, but I've figured it out now. It's going to be Barry! Got to love his accent! On to reading!

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><p>When I pulled into the parking lot of TAPS, I started to get a little nervous, more for the investigation than the interview though. As I was walking into the office, Jason and Grant were leaving, I assumed for a reveal. We had a small conversation and they told me good luck and everything, but they had to get going so that they weren't late for their reveal.<p>

Kris was no longer sitting at the front desk when I went in so I went on to the conference room to wait for the GHI team. Robb was already in there so I sat down and we got to know each other a little better and he informed me that I would be able to investigate with each member of the GHI team for about 20 minutes and between each investigation time I would sit with one of the team members at command central watching the cameras in 10 minutes increments so the whole investigation would take about two and a half hours, at least for me it would, they would stay for a couple more hours after I left to conclude the investigation. I was also told that really my interview would go through the night with each team member so when the whole team was finally in the conference room, we left for the Whalen Café and I rode with Barry and Joe.

When we got to the bar, Robb, Barry, and Dustin went in for the tour of all the hot spots, which left Joe, Brandy, and me to unload the equipment from the vans.

"So, Josie, are you excited for your mini investigation tonight?" Brandy said as we waited for Robb, Barry, and Dustin to come back.

"I'm very excited. It's been a little longer than what I wanted since my last investigation. And I really wish I could stay for the whole investigation." I said.

"You could ask Robb if you could stay, I don't think he would mind." Joe said.

"What about me?" we heard Robb say as he, Barry, and Dustin came back to the vans.

"Josie would like to stay for the whole investigation if it's all right with you." Brandy said, saving me from having to stutter out a response.

"I don't see any kind of problem with that. And really it was Jason who didn't want you staying the whole time, Josie." Robb said, leaning against the van with one arm about his head. "He did want you to call him when you were ready to leave so he could come get you though. I'm sure he'll understand, though." He added thoughtfully.

"Awesome. Thanks, Robb. And that is something he would do." I said, rolling my eyes slightly, but smiling.

"Okay. Well, let's start setting up then. Josie, why don't you help Joe set up central command? We'll have to put it in the van tonight because this place is kind of small." Robb said and everyone agreed with him so I started to help Joe set up central command while everyone else went to place IR cameras, mini DV's, and digital audio recorders in various places throughout the bar. I quickly understood how all of the cords had to be set up and which monitors they all connected to so Joe and myself soon found ourselves in a random conversation about food.

"Wait, your favorite type of food is Italian even though you're half German and half French?" Joe said, accidentally cutting me off from my rambling about Italian food.

"Oh, uh, yeah. It is kind of strange, isn't it?" I said, laughing slightly. "What's your favorite type of food, Joe?"

"Definitely Mexican. Don't ask me why because I really don't know." Joes said, my laughter seeming contagious.

"I don't like Mexican food. Actually it's more like Mexican food doesn't like me. Whenever I do eat it, it usually takes a couple of weeks for my stomach to return to normal." I said, giving Joe a good laugh with my comment about Mexican food not liking me.

"Are you two talking about food or am I hearing things?" I heard Dustin say as he walked to the van.

"Why yes, actually, we are." I said, still smiling.

"Well, I guess that's one way to get to know someone." Dustin said, making us all laugh.

Soon, everyone was standing outside the van and Barry was showing us all the camera angles so I listened and payed close attention to be able to hear what the claims were for each space.

"All right, thanks Barry. Now, Josie, why don't you stay out here with Barry for the scheduled ten minutes and Dustin you come with me and we'll take the second floor while Joe and Brandy take the first floor. That okay with everyone?" Robb said and we all agreed. "All right, let's go lights out." He said and we all went inside to turn all the lights off.

When I got back to central command, Barry was already sitting in the van watching the cameras.

"Hello Josie." He said as I climbed into the back of the van to sit with him.

"Hey Barry. How's it going?" I said, smiling, because I was in a very good mood for some reason.

"I see you're in a good mood." Barry said, also smiling widely.

"Yeah, I guess I am." I said and we fell into an easy conversation.

Ten minutes later, as promised, Robb came over the walkie and said, "Okay, Barry and Josie, me and Dustin will switch places with you for the next twenty minutes."

"Okay, Robb. We'll take the thermal and full spectrum up there and se what we can get." Barry answered so we got Barry's full spectrum camera and the thermal imager and got the audio recorder from Robb and Dustin when they came to the van.

Barry and myself went up to the second floor, letting Joe and Brandy know beforehand of course, and we decided to investigate the small bathroom that actually had quite a few reports.

"Well this should be fun." I said, eyeing the small room apprehensively.

"You have nothing to worry about. The two of us will be able to fit in there. If we had a camera crew with us I wouldn't even bother trying to investigate in here." Barry said, walking into the small room.

"Well, okay." I said and followed him. I decided to sit on the sink counter and Barry put the seat down on the toilet and sat on it after he put the audio recorder on a shelf.

"This is Barry and Josie in the small restroom on the second floor of the Whalen Café with a short EVP session." He said once he sat down and then continued, "Is there anybody here with us tonight?" then after a pause, he motioned for me to say something. "We aren't here to hurt you, we just want to communicate with you." I said and Barry smiled at me encouragingly. We continued the EVP session for about ten minutes and then decided to try debunking one of the claims.

"The claim is that when people are leaving this room, right before they turn the light off, a face appears in the mirror." Barry said as I jumped down from the counter. Of course when I did that, I stumbled and fell into Barry.

"Are you okay there?" he said, laughing slightly when he caught me and my face started turning red.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks." I said, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Okay, now what could be making people see a face in the mirror do you think?" he said, studying the mirror.

"Are they seeing it out of the corner of their eye or full on?" I said, also studying the mirror.

"Out of the corner of their eye." Barry said, looking at me like he knew what I was getting at.

"Okay, now this mirror looks kind of old, so there's a few things that could be happening." I said, using my hand to talk like I always did when I was on to something. Barry was smiling at me and motioned for me to continue. I studied the mirror a little more and found what I was looking for. "Here, look. There's this slight deform right here and I think that at the right angle, it could look like a face." I said and turned like I was leaving the room and out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked exactly like a face in the mirror and when I looked at the mirror completely the face was gone.

"I gather that you figured out what's going on with this?" Barry asked as I started smiling and he smiled himself.

"I have in fact figured it out." I said and Barry started slowly moving towards me, but then Robb's voice came over the walkie.

"Okay guys, Joe and Josie, y'all come to central, Barry and Brandy continue upstairs and Dustin and I will take downstairs." He said.

"Okay, and just so everyone knows, Josie has debunked the claim in the small restroom of a face in the mirror as just being a spot on it." Barry said, smiling widely.

"That's great. Good job, Josie." Robb said and I could tell he was smiling.

The investigation went on in the same way for a while but I investigated the most with Robb because he needed to know my investigating style so that he could decide if I would be a good addition to the team.

When we got back to TAPS office, I got a little bit scared because standing outside nest to the door was Jason with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face. "Oh no." I said with my hand over my face as Jason came over to the van. When they asked, I told Barry and Joe that it would be best for them to leave and get the van unloaded as quickly as they could because Jason would wait for no one to be around to talk to me, and he did in fact do just that. I stayed seated in the van and turned to face him as he stood close to me while leaning slightly on the open door and as everyone passed by to go inside, they all gave me an apologetic look. Jason sighed before he started speaking.

"You stayed for the whole investigation." He said and he was looking at me so intently that I had to look away.

"I know, but –" I started and Jason cut me off.

"You were only supposed to stay for the first two and a half hours. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Even Kristen was worried about you. Don't ever make me worry like that again." He said, moving his hands to my shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Jason. You know I had no way of coming back anyway." I said, still looking down.

"Did Robb not tell you that I wanted you to call me when you were done?" he asked and my eyes went wide because Robb had told me that and I had just completely forgotten.

"Jason, I am so sorry. I completely forgot about that. I feel so stupid now. I'm so sorry." I said with my hands on his arms because his hands were still on my shoulders, but then he pulled away from my grasp and ran a hand over his face.

"It's fine, I should've known you would forget." He said and then surprised me by starting to laugh. I looked at him with utter confusion, but couldn't help laughing with him. I threw my arms around him and he put his arms around me, but then he picked me up out of the van, which made me hold on to him tighter, and he told me I should be getting home.

Before I started home, I went inside to tell everyone good-bye. "Thank you so much for allowing me to do the investigation with you guys, I loved every minute of it." I said when I found everyone back in the conference room and smiled. "Thank you for agreeing to it, you debunked most of the claims, which helped a whole lot." Robb said and gave me a hug before I left, as did everyone else.

When I got home, I changed into my pajamas and sat on my bed to watch some old _Ghost Hunters_ episodes. I fell asleep thinking about the investigation and the team, particularly Dustin and Barry. I knew I could like both of them very much and that I would become very good friends with them quicker than anyone else on the team. That is, if I got a spot on the team. I quit thinking of that depressing thought and fell asleep smiling.

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading! Reviews and such would be so lovely! :)<strong>


	3. We're Going Where?

**Note:** Sorry for the slight delay on the update! I had my wisdom teeth cut out a couple of days ago. There was something I was going to say to you all, but of course I can't remember what it was anymore, it'll come back to me sometime. Anyway, here's part 3!

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><p>The next morning, I woke up to my cell phone ringing and didn't bother looking at the caller ID before answering.<p>

"Hello?" I said sleepily, then cleared my throat so that my voice would sound better.

"Hey Josie, this is Robb and I've got some news for you." Robb said and immediately I got nervous. He continued after I didn't say anything, "Well, I'm sorry to say that you're going to have to deal with GHI team for some time now."

When he started that statement, I was so scared that I didn't get the spot, but was grinning broadly by the time he finished speaking. "Oh my God! Thank you so much!" I exclaimed, making Robb laugh.

"You're quite welcome. I assure you that you'll be a great addition to the team. Your method of investigation is excellent and your debunking skills are absolutely amazing." Robb said after he laughed. "Now, we leave next week for France, but we're arriving a few days early. We'll be in Versailles, but we don't have anyone that could find things for us to do while we're there so I was wondering if you would be interested in doing that. And of course if need be, you may just have to translate some stuff for the rest of us."

"Sure, I'd love to! Just tell me where we're staying, if you know, and I'll get right on it!" I said excitedly.

"I'm glad you're excited about it. We'll be staying at Trianon Palace in the Classic Garden View Rooms, so of course the Garden of Versailles is a must see, but anything you can find close to there, in Paris particularly, would be fine." Robb said.

"Okay. I'll get to that as soon as I can." I said, smiling.

"All right, thanks and I'll see you next week." Robb said and we hung up.

I was so excited about the position, but I had to think of my teaching job, so I solemnly called the school and told them about my new opportunity and everyone was excited for me. I decided I would go clean out my office the next day because I was too excited to do something that would make me sad.

Later that day I got a call from the TAPS office and wasn't completely sure who it was.

"Hello?" I said a cradled my phone between my ear and my shoulder because I was in the middle of folding some clothes I had just washed.

"Hey Josie, it's Jason. Robb's just told me the news and you have no idea how happy I am for you, and everyone else is too." Jason said and I smiled.

"Thanks Jay. I'm excited to be in the TAPS family on such a larger scale." I said.

"It's going to be an amazing experience, trust me. Now, tonight we're all grilling at my place, GHI included, and since you're now a part of GHI you are more than welcome to come, though of course we all know that Grant and I would've invited you to come either way." Jason said.

"Sweet, you know I'll be there!" I said enthusiastically.

"All right, I'll see you later then." Jason said and we hung up. Me and Jason never said bye over the phone for some reason, even when texting, it's just not something we did.

That night, I was one of the first ones to get to Jason's house, so of course I was the one that had to help with the grilling. All five of the kids were very excited to see me and wanted me to join them in their pool, but they knew Jason wanted me to help him and didn't argue when he said that I couldn't. As everyone started arriving at Jason's, I got a very wide range of hugs from Steve's tackle hugs to Brandy's soft embrace that made me genuinely smile. Oh, and when I say tackle hug, I mean that literally Steve ran up to me and pick me up off the ground by a couple of feet at least, but, as always, I was laughing very hard by the time Steve put me down. After we all finished eating, me, Brandy, and Kris sat with Jason's wife, Kristen, for a little while (after changing into our bikinis) while the guys did what they did best, goof off. After a little while, Kristen had to go put the younger children to bed so we all decided to hang out in the pool.

"Hey Josie, have you started any research for Paris and Versailles yet?" Robb said as everyone was just leaning against the side of the pool.

"I have." I said, proud of how much of a nerd I am.

"Good. Me and the rest of the team were talking earlier and I think we've all agreed on going to a very nice, though expensive, restaurant one night and going to a local place for lunch one day if you can find any and if you could find out about two night clubs we can all decide on one to check out if we want. I'll leave museums and sight-seeing up to whatever you find interesting." Robb said.

"I can do that. And don't worry, I've been to France enough to know what not to do." I said, laughing.

"We don't doubt that. When was the last time you went to France?" Barry said from beside me.

"Last summer actually. And Grant and Jay even went with me." I said, smiling.

"Yeah, and don't worry, she knows how to find fun things to do." Grant said.

"That's good to know. It's always nice to have someone that's familiar with the area. That's why we like going to Ireland so much." Robb said.

Suddenly, someone pulled on my leg and I went under the water unexpectedly. When I got back to the surface, everyone was laughing, Steve the most, so I knew he was the culprit,

"Oh you're gonna get it Gonsalves." I said, laughing, and went after him. He tried to swim away from me, but I was too fast and caught up with him quickly (I was the state champion three years in a row for swimming in high school). I jumped on Steve's back and we ended up at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. When we got back to the surface, we started splashing water in each other's faces, which made everyone laugh. Once it was clear that we had both swallowed enough chlorinated water, Jason decided to separate us, though he was laughing at us too.

"Do you and Steve always act like little kids around each other?" Joe said as everyone fell into their own small conversations.

"Pretty much. He's very much like an older brother to me, and so is Tango even though he's not that much older than me. Steve just teases me and stuff a lot more than Tango does." I said.

"What about us?" I heard Tango said from behind me.

"I said you're two of the most horrible people I have ever laid eyes on." I said jokingly and with a fake British accent.

"Oi, you're not British, you have no right to do the accent." Steve said, copying me.

"Well then you don't have any right to say 'oi'. But I do because I'm not fully American." I said.

"But you were born here, weren't you?" Tango said.

"Actually, no. I was born just outside of Salzburg, Austria." I said, uncrossing my arms.

"Austria?" Joe, Steve, and Tango said at the same time.

"Yeah, my parents moved there after they got married. We moved here when I was about eight months old, at least that's what I've been told." I said.

"How did we not know you were born in Austria?" Steve said, referring to himself and Tango.

"How should I know? Jason and Grant know." I said, shrugging my shoulders slightly.

"Who else knows? I believe we are a little hurt because we didn't know." Tango said dramatically, making me laugh.

"I don't know. I think I told Kris and I'm pretty sure Dustin knows too, but I think that's it. Don't feel left out, most of the GHI team doesn't know either. Yet." I said.

Soon we all had to leave because it was getting late so I got a hug from everyone again. While saying bye to everyone, Barry told me that he would help me with my research of things to do and places to go to while the was in Paris (Versailles, Paris, it's all the same to them) and I was very happy that I wouldn't have to do it all alone and we decided to meet at the public library the next morning. When I got home, I decided that I could wait until morning for a shower and immediately fell asleep.

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><p><strong>Well? What'd you think? Reviews would be lovely! I'll try to get part 4 up soon, but it'll probaby be after the July 4th weekend, so maybe Tuesday or Wednesday unless I can put something together before tomorrow. Thanks for reading though! :)<strong>


	4. Research Part 1

Hi there! I know it has been super long since I've updated so I just wanted to get something up for you guys (yeah, it's really, REALLY short, sorry!). For the next part I'm actually going to do some research so that I know it'll be correct and everything, I don't want to write something that really has no kind of fact to it, plus I'm no good at making that kind of stuff up haha. Enjoy! (Reviews would be awesome too! It helps my motivation haha)

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><p>The next morning I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready for the day. Since I had gotten everyone's phone numbers the night before I decided to text Barry to see when he wanted to meet up at the library to do the research. We agreed to meet at 11, get all the necessary things we would need from the library, check them out on my library card, go get some lunch, then go to my place and continue the research I had started the day before.<p>

I took a quick shower and fixed my hair and everything girls tend to do after a shower and checked the time and saw I had time to eat something before I had to go, meaning some chocolate chip Eggo's.

I barely made it to the library by 11 and was relieved to see Barry beginning to walk in as I pulled up. I quickly parked and made my way into the library to find him. It was easy enough to find him because he decided to wait for me in the small lobby area next to this statue thing of someone reading to a child.

"Hey Barry," I said as I walked up to him. "Ready for some of this research to go down?"

"Hey Josie. I'm ready if you are. Anything specific you want me to look for?" Barry said as we walked into the main part of the library.

"Um, I think maybe we should look for some travel books on France and Paris/Versailles and maybe just some informational books on them too, so could you maybe do the informational stuff and I'll do the travel books?" I said, a little uncertain as to what we really should be looking for specifically.

"Can do. Meet back here in 30 minutes?" he said.

"Sounds good to me." I said and we went our separate ways to look for what we needed to get. Thirty minutes later we met back up with me and my pile of about 12 books and Barry's whopping pile of 3.

"Really, just three?" I said jokingly.

"At least I read through them a little bit to make sure they would be useful, jeez." Barry said in mock offense. I laughed and got in line with everything to check all the books out.

"So do you just want to follow me to my place really quick so we can put all these books in my house then go get some lunch?" I asked as we walked out.

"Yeah, that works for me. Where are you parked?" he asked.

"Right over there." I said, pointing to my car.

"How lucky, you parked right next to me." He said, laughing slightly, me laughing along with him.

When we got to my house I went and put the books inside then we took his car and went to Taco Bell to get some lunch. Once back at my house, we got right into the research, me working on the travel stuff and him working on the informational stuff.

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><p>Again, I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I'll try to start posting a little more regularly, I promise! (With the labor day weekend coming up I should be able to do at least one or two chapters)<p> 


	5. Research Part 2

Okay, so this is, yet again, just another filler chapter. I couldn't really do any research or anything because college marching band is just that awesome and we went to our first game (it was an away game) and I was sort of sent to the hospital. But research will start soon and hopefully I won't get anything wrong and stuff. Enjoy!

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><p>The research really didn't take as long as I thought it might have. Since I had been to France so many times before, I had a fairly general idea of where I think we should go to, I just wanted to double check and be sure that everything was going to run as smoothly as possible, though I'm sure with the GHI team we would have found something to do if something didn't go as planned and because of who all there was it would be fun regardless of what we did.<p>

"Well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would." I said, just to try to start up a conversation.

"Yeah, I thought it would take a lot longer than just two hours." Barry said, feeling a similar awkwardness I was feeling.

"Think we should get all this to Robb?" I asked.

"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. We can take my car if you want, I'll call him and make sure he's home." Barry said, pulling his phone out. Apparently Robb was home because the next thing Barry said was, "Okay, he said we can come on over with what we've gotten so far."

"Okay cool. Let's go." I said, smiling, and grabbed my notebook I'd been taking notes in and followed Barry out to his car.

When we got to Robb's house, he was already outside waiting for us.

"Hey, did you get some good stuff?" he said as we walked up to him.

"Yeah I think so. I already had a general idea of what I was looking for and everything there looks like it'll be good." I said.

"I think everything will go smoothly as well. I just looked up some back ground information of everything so that we all will have a general idea of each place we go." Barry said, handing Robb both of the notebooks with the research in them.

"Sounds good. I'll look through this later and get back to you about everything and I'll see you tomorrow I guess." Robb said and me and Barry headed back to place.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later." I said as Barry pulled into my driveway.

"Yeah, see you later." He said. "Wait, I was wondering if maybe you would like to get some lunch again tomorrow or something." He said as I started to get out of the car.

"Um, yeah, sure. I'd like that." I said, smiling slightly.

"Okay great. I'll pick you up around 11:30 then." He said, also smiling.

"Okay, sound good. See you later." I said.

"Yeah, see you." He said and I walked into my house with a big smile on my face. '_I really think I'm going to like GHI.'_ I thought to myself, sitting on the couch and turning the TV on.

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><p>The next morning I woke up earlier than I had originally planned so that I would be sure I had time to get ready before Barry came to pick me up. I decided to wear a black skirt with redscarlet colored flowers on it with a white shirt and red/scarlet tank top under it. I had just bought a new pair of flats a couple of days ago and was going to wear them, but soon found that if I wore them for too long, the backs of my ankles would be completely raw and I knew that would not be fun so I opted for a pair of orange sandals instead. I put on very little makeup, deciding that just some eye liner and a little bit of mascara would do. When I was done getting ready it was just 11 o'clock so I sat down and started an episode of Ghost Hunters International until Barry go there.

Right at 11:30, there was a knock on my door. I smiled and stood up to open the door, smoothing out my skirt before I did so. When I opened the door, Barry was looking a little nervous for whatever reason. He looked really nice, wearing a blue and white shirt with a pair of nice, dark blue jeans and his normal shoes.

"Hey." I said since it didn't seem like he was going to say anything to me as I noticed that he just kept looking at me.

"Hey. Ready to go?" he said, coming out of a daze when I spoke.

"Yeah, let's go." I said, smiling, and closed and locked my door and followed him to his car.

This time he chose where to go and we ended up going to Cracker Barrel, which is one of my absolute favorite places to eat.

"You like this place, right?" he asked as he parked the car.

"I absolutely love this place. But I won't eat anything except things from their breakfast menu. I think it is the best place in town for breakfast food." I said.

"I may just do the same. I've only been here a couple of times, but when I have it's been really good." He said as we walked in the restaurant.

"Just two?" the hostess asked when we walked in.

"Yes, thank you." Barry said and we were lead to a table meant to seat two people and sat across from each other.

"Your waitress will be right with you." The hostess said and left us to ourselves.

"So are you excited about your first investigation with GHI?" Barry asked me as we waited for the waitress to come take our drink orders.

"You have no idea how excited I am. I don't think I can even put it in words." I said, smiling even more than I already was.

"Good. You should be. I think it'll be a fairly interesting case. And everything's always fun with the team." Barry said, also smiling.

"Hey there, my name's Brittany and I'll be taking care of you today. What can I get for you to drink?" The waitress said once she came over to us.

"Um, I'll have hot tea please with cream and sugar on the side." I said.

"I'll just have some water." Barry said.

"Okay, I'll have that right out for you." Brittany said and walked away.

"So you like hot tea?" Barry asked me.

"I love it. Honestly Irish Breakfast Tea is my favorite but of the three kinds of tea they have here, the English Breakfast Tea is the best to me. And I do kind of load it down with sugar, but that's okay. I try to moderate myself with it and the cream." I said, beginning to ramble a little bit.

"Irish tea is very good. You've made a good choice there." He said.

"Oh yeah, you would know, wouldn't you?" I said, laughing slightly.

"Well, I would hope so." He said, also laughing a little.

When the waitress came back with our drinks, she asked, "Do we know what we would like to eat yet?"

"I do. How about you?" I said, directing my question to Barry.

"I think I'll just get whatever you do." He said

"Okay. Well, I'll get the Wholesome Mornin' Sampler with bacon and biscuits. Oh, and can I get some apple butter with that too please?" I said.

"Of course. So two of those?" the waitress asked and I nodded. "Okay, that'll be right out." She said and walked away.

"Well, what do you think so far about the team?" Barry asked me just to keep the conversation going.

"I like everyone. Robb's cool, I already know Dustin from his time with TAPS, Joe's pretty cool, I think me and Brandy will really get along well, and then there's this Irish guy who's name just escapes me right now and, well, I'm really not sure about him. Hopefully I'll get along with him, but he just really seems like the trouble maker of the team." I said, trying not to laugh.

"I think the two of you will get along just fine." He said, not holding back his laughter.

"Eh, we'll see." I said, still smiling. "Nah, you're pretty cool too. I think I'll get along well with everyone."

"Good. It helps to be able to get along with the whole team. I know there were some problems with Brian when GHI first started, but there's no one like that on the team anymore so it should be pretty good." Barry said, taking a sip of his water.

When the food got to us, Barry looked at it with the look of 'Woah, that's a lot of food.' Causing me to laugh a little.

"What? Looks like a lot of food?" I asked, amused.

"Well, yeah. How do you eat this much food every time you eat here?" he said with the same look on his face.

"I don't know. I just do." I said

"And of course you would stay skinny after eating so much." He said, rolling his eyes jokingly.

"High metabolism?" I said, making him laugh some more.

When we were done eating, we went to Robb's house to see what he had to say about the research we gave him (he had called Barry that morning and told him we could come over after lunch).

Barry knocked on the door when we go there and, or course, Robb opened it and let us in.

"Hey guys. The research all looks really good." Robb said once we were in his house. "I think everything you picked out for us to do will be fun, Josie. You have no idea how glad I am that you know so much about France."

"I hoped you would like it all." I said, smiling.

"It's all great. And everything you got is too, Barry. It'll all be really helpful while we're there." Robb said. "Okay, well, we leave in two days, so I'll see you two then." He said and we left for Barry to take me back home.

"I had a good time today," I said when Barry pulled into my driveway.

"I'm glad. So did I." he said, smiling.

"I think everything's going to be really great with GHI, I'm really looking forward to it." I said, getting out of his car.

"Yeah. So I'll see you in two days then." He said.

"Yeah, see you then." I said, smiling.

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><p>Well? What do you think? Maybe leave me a review and let me know how it is? That would be so wonderful! Part six should be up sometime soon (hopefully)!<p> 


	6. First Impressions of France

So I figured I should maybe get back to this. I do have another story in process right now (if you like The Hobbit you should check it out), but I think I'll try to focus on this for now since it's been so long since I've updated (which I apologize for). Well here's chapter 6! Enjoy!

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><p><span>Two days later<span>

I met up with the GHI team at TAPS headquarters in the wee hours of the morning (about 5 am I think it was) to go to the airport for our flight at 8:30 that morning.

"Morning Josie." I heard an overly enthusiastic voice say behind me. I looked and saw Robb walking up to me with his luggage in tow.

"Someone's in a good mood this morning." I said sarcastically, not wanting to be awake that early.

"Well, we are headed to France. I think that's a good enough reason to be in a good mood." Robb said and I could tell he wanted to laugh at me.

"Yeah, right. Because going to France at 8 in the morning is a great reason to be in a good mood." I said even more sarcastically than before.

"Sure, why not?" Robb said, laughing slightly, and walked by me to the conference room.

After about ten minutes, the whole team was in the conference room and Robb was going over logistical stuff.

"Okay everyone, our plane leaves at 8:30, so we're going to head on over to the airport now. Let's go get all of our personal luggage into the vans, then come back and get the gear." Robb said and we all headed out to the vans, put all of our personal luggage in one van, then went back in the office, got all of the gear, and took it out to one of the other vans. Jason and Grant met up with us outside at about 6 and we headed to the airport.

"Hey Josie, come here." Jason said to me when we got to the airport and had all the luggage and gear taken care of and were just waiting around for the time being.

"Yeah?" I said and followed him and Grant away from the rest of the group.

"Think you'll be okay on this first trip?" Jason asked me.

"Yeah, of course. You know I've been to France before." I said, confused as to why he asked me that.

"Has Robb told you where you all will be investigating?" Grant asked me and clearly they knew something I didn't.

"Yeah, the Palace of Versailles." I said, still confused.

"That isn't all. Robb just got a call to go back to the catacombs under Paris. There have been more things happening since we went." Grant said.

"Oh. Well that changes things a bit." I said, trying to let that sink in. What most people didn't know is that I have really bad claustrophobia, and that plus being underground in the dark, well I wasn't sure what would happen.

"So are you going to be okay?" Jason said again, concern in his voice.

"Yeah I think so. Should I tell Robb about the whole claustrophobia thing?" I said.

"That might be a good idea." Jason said.

"Yeah. And probably having the whole team knowing that would be a good idea too." Grant said.

"Okay, I'll be sure to do that." I said.

"Okay. Come here." Grant said and pulled me into a hug, which I accepted gratefully. When he let me go, Jason also gave me a hug, but it was longer than Grant's.

"You be careful now, all right? And call us when you get over there." Jason said while he hugged me.

"Okay, I will." I said as he let me go.

"Josie. Time to go." Robb said from behind me.

"Okay, I'm coming." I said to Robb. "I'll be sure to call you guys once we get over there. Bye." I said, and walked away from Grant and Jason.

"What was that all about?" Barry said, walking up beside me as we headed out to board the plane.

"Just the fact that no one informed me of having to investigate the Paris catacombs too." I said, a little too harshly.

"Oh. Why? Is there a problem with it?" Barry asked, confused about my harsh tone.

"Maybe. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so harsh. I just happen to have a fairly bad case of claustrophobia. And the fact that it'll be completely dark down there doesn't help anything either." I said as we walked toward the plane.

"Oh. I had no idea. I'm sure if you tell Robb you won't have to do the investigation if you don't feel comfortable going down there." Barry said.

"All right gang. Here's our seats. Let's get settled in for the flight." Robb said and sat down with his carry on in his lap and Dustin sat beside him. Brandy and Joe sat in front of them, leaving the last two seats behind Robb and Dustin for me and Barry to sit in.

"You know, I honestly really want to try to do that investigation. I don't know if it's necessarily a good idea or not, but I want to try." I said once we sat down.

"I guess it's really up to you." Barry said.

"What about an investigation?" Robb asked from in front of us, turning to face us.

"Oh, just the one in the Paris catacombs that Jason and Grant told me about." I said.

"Oh, yeah. Is there a problem with it?" Robb said.

"Claustrophobia." I said simply.

"Oh. Well, if you think you can do it, then come on the investigation, but if at any time you need to get out of there, let any of us know and we will get you out of there." Robb told me.

"Okay, will do." I said and we all settled in for the flight, hopefully to get at least an hour more of sleep.

"Hey, Josie. Wake up, we landed." I heard someone say while being lightly shaken.

"I don't wanna." I whined, opening one eye to look at Barry, which made him laugh.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." He said.

"Fine, fine. I'm awake." I said, sitting up a little better.

Once we were all off the plane and in the airport with all of our luggage and the gear, Robb went to check on the rental vans that were supposed to be waiting for us. While Robb was doing that, I went to order coffee for everyone.

"_Six cafés s'il vous plaît._" I said to the barista at the coffee shop in the airport.

"_Tout de suite_" he said and began to make the coffees. "_Qui aura dix euros._" He said, putting the coffees on the counter.

"_Merci._" I said, picking up the two cup holders with the coffees in them and heading back over to the GHI team.

"Wow, you really are very fluent in French, aren't you?" Dustin said as I handed him a cup of coffee.

"_Oui._" I said with a smile as everyone else got their coffee.

"All right guys, the vans are here. Let's load everything up and head on to the hotel. Thanks, Josie" Robb said as I handed him a cup of coffee and we all got our luggage and the gear and headed out to the vans.

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><p>Okie dokie! Here's part 6! Hope it wasn't too terrible. Let me know what you think! :)<p>

Translations (that may or may not be completely correct, it's been a while since the last time I had to use French for anything):

_Six cafés s'il vous plaît - _Six coffees please

_Tout de suite - _Coming right up_  
><em>

_Merci_ - Thank you

_Oui_ - Yes


End file.
